Why do you homebrew? or Hombrew blues

[Gold Roger]

Why do I create homebrew stuff?

As a creative exercise. To have cool unique worldelements when I need them. To kill time. As writing exercise. Because it's fun.

Why do I DM only homebrew stuff?

So I can use all the cool stuff I thought up. So I can drag and drop any neat setting-element and adventure I come uppon. So I can kitchen-sink without much work. So I can get the ideal feel for the gameworld. So I can improvise. So I can play a shared world with my players.

I don't want a homebrew because I want to play unique or 100% adjusted to my own preferences. Quite the opposite, I prefer to ensure that my players can expected all usual assumptions of the game to be true (unless they want to explicitely break one). But DMing homebrew allows me to take a dungeoncrawl classics module and run it for a valenar elf cleric, a renegade red mage from Thay, a warforged ninja and dwarf soulborn from a culture the player himself thought up, set in a kingdom I created some years ago (or just yesterday).

 

[Drowbane]

Why cook a meal when you can microwave a TV Dinner?

The prepackaged campaign world, like the TV Dinner, might be serviceable if that's all you have the time or inclination for. But the meal you cooked -- if you have any skill in cooking -- is almost certainly better.

RC

great analogy!

 

[Ibram]

Hmmm... I don't know if you realise this or not, but you're asking more than one question here.

1) Why do you create your own settings?

2) Why do you use your own homebrew settings rather than using a published one?

3) Am I still homebrewing if I'm borrowing elements from other settings?

4) If your homebrew setting is so vanilla that it's practically indistinguisable from hoardes of other such settings, then why bother creating it?

1) because I enjoy the act of creating my own world.

2) its more interesting (to me) then published campaign settings. No setting I've found has the combination of elements that would would make it the best stting for me to run, so I've created my own.

3) I'd be hard pressed to name a campaing setting published in the last few years that cannot be said to borrow something from another setting.

4) Indistinguisable? down to the names of the countries, how they are arranged, and the names of the NPCs? If all you do is change those things then you have created your own world. You create it to enjoy it, and if you enjoy it then why not create it?

 

[Templetroll]

1) Why do you create your own settings?

Peer pressure. When I started gaming in '79 at least 8 of the 12+ usual players had their own homebrews. The expectation of other players was that I would come up with something. It was in the late 80's that I was gaming with a different group that used the published modules. It was great because it was all new to me!

2) Why do you use your own homebrew settings rather than using a published one?

Published worlds are entertaining but more satisfying to play in than to run for me.

3) Am I still homebrewing if I'm borrowing elements from other settings?

Sure, I alter things I like from other settings to fit my world. I liked the draconians so I came up with my own version of them. They are in an area of monster kingdoms and the draconians were created by someone to offset the power of the kobolds as servitors of dragons. Draconians and kobolds will work together under orders of dragons but strive to undermine each other. When PCs get into that area they will likely be the force to upset the apple cart!

4) If your homebrew setting is so vanilla that it's practically indistinguisable from hoardes of other such settings, then why bother creating it?

First, I like Vanilla. It is the flavor that all other flavors are based on. Second, my take on vanilla is as much in the style of play as in the design. I know the world better and can adjust to improve the story on the fly if things work better that way.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

For those that homebrew...why do you? I see so many vanilla homebrew fantasy settings...why bother? Why not use a published vanilla D&D setting? Is your setting so unique that it hasn't been done? What keeps you from just simply using a published setting?

I homebrew because I want to try something different. Different to me, different to my players.

There is nothing quite like seeing a twinkle in your players' eyes when you surprise them and rekindle that desire to explore something new...and too many players are intimately familiar with Faerun and Oerth.

Its not all icecream & cake, of course- I screwed up the last campaign I created by making the (homebrewed) main foes too easy to beat. Because of that, I've taken more than a year off from running FRPGs. And since nobody in my game group wants to play anything else, I was off the hook.

Now I'm designing something new. To answer your question- no, it hasn't been done before. AFAIK, despite using certain races and classes, large portions of what I'm designing simply haven't been done in any published setting- definitely not as I'm assembling them. Because of some decisions I've made about the nature of the campaign world, I'm having to create a way for spellcasters to design their own spells...without having to oversee EACH step of the process for EVERY spell. Fortunately, 2 other guys are running their own campaigns right now, so there's really no rush.

Don't get me wrong- I like vanilla. Its just that I like other flavors, too!

If you want some ideas to help break your creative block, try this thread:

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=102706&page=1&pp=40)

 

[reason]

...

Why build worlds? Because no-one else is going to do it the way I'd do it. I certainly lift flavors and concepts from elsewhere, but the end result is always definitively mine. In that, it's no different from any form of writing. Nothing is original, but everything is original.

The decision as to do it yourself versus use other material is very much an economic one. You tend to aim for some intersection of cost of input and quality of result that appeals to you. I'd imagine that almost everyone uses some mix of borrowing and creation. What that mix might be depends on what you personally find hard, easy, time-consuming, rewarding and so forth.

Reason
Principia Infecta

 

[seskis281]

Why did I create my own world?

For all the reasons so many have listed, but above all - why not? I love creating worlds. I am probably in a minority in that I still like the classic medieval-based fantasy world, and was devoted to Greyhawk for many, many years. I liked having what I assume you refer to as "vanilla," which is to say not a lot of crunch or detail, but a variety of different areas of a world which offered different flavors based on historical comparisons, just jazzed up with sword & sorcery. The truth is I haven't liked a published setting really since the original Greyhawk (although it looks like Wilderlands and Goodman's Known Worlds will be targeting my style now). Never liked Forgotten Realms - too overpowered, complex, and differentials between branches of races were based on how they were "touched" by planar relations rather than geographic/ethnic differences. Dragonlance? Great plots and stories that make for good reading - but too much baggage to run as a game setting. Eberron - I like the IDEA of magic as technology, but I hate the overpowering/fast advance of 3.5 and it's just too much "fantasy superheroes" for me. I like Kalamar, but just... too much, to meticulous in specific details (and unpronouncable names).

So I wrote my own, Ilshara. I put it out free for people just because I like to share. I doubt too many people will jump up and say "Oh yes... I'll drop what I'm doing for that!" But maybe some will like it (one person has told me they are adopting it), others may find bits of interesting ideas from it, and especially for newbies coming to Castles & Crusades it would offer a good setting to start with.

John

 

[Turjan]

I don't think I need to reiterate all the answers that have been given before. I create a homebrew because I like it. As simple as that. My favorite one isn't overly exotic and draws from quite a few resources I like, and here only the elements I like. All mixed up home-style and spiced to my taste. As the players don't care, anyway, there's no harm done.

 

[Drowbane]

Q: Why?

A: I don't like any published setting "as is". I love many aspects of FR, Eberron, Darksun, etc... but they've yet to publish a setting just for me. So I use what I like, and correct what I don't.

 

[Nyaricus]

I am not sure exactly why I started to homebrew. I guess I've always been a erpson who needs things "just right". So, I started on a long and convoluted path. My homebrew, when first unveiled 5 years ago was a miasma of different elements which influenced me at the time - and thus it has kept to. It is constantly changing I find, which I am fine with. My geography has changed perhaps a dozen times over as many maps drawn out, gods have risen and fallen before even touching paper, and heroes have their stories told in the gilded halls of the mighty without ever being statted up.

I do this because I love this. I love creation, and with it: destruction. I can pick and choose and change and warp and twist and prod and mold and do with my world whatever I wish; it is mine. It's fun, it's creative, and even if it is, to the casual observer "vanilla", I can still tell you about a cleric-turned-bard-turned-general named Nyaricus who rose up in the Godswar to Ascend into Godhood. I can relate to you about the Landing of the Fomorians, and the destruction they wrought across the Black Forest. I can speak of the Sundering of the Elves, and how some of their folk fell from the graces of the Gods themselves.

Crafting a world is a hefty process, but it's rewards to the stalwart are well worth the toil

--Nyaricus, a homebrewer and GM thereof